Wednesday, July 10, 1861.Washington, DC.
| President Lincoln writes a memo to Simon B. Buckner, whom
Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin sent to meet with Lincoln regarding the
"condition of public sentiment" in Kentucky. Lincoln writes, "It is my duty . .
. to suppress an insurrection existing within the United States. I wish to do
this with the least possible disturbance, or annoyance to well disposed people
anywhere. So far I have not sent an armed force into Kentucky . . . I sincerely
desire that no necessity for it may be presented; but I mean to say nothing
which shall hereafter embarrass me in the performance of . . . my duty."
Beriah Magoffin to Abraham Lincoln, 25 June 1861, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC;
Abraham Lincoln to Simon B.
Buckner, 10 July 1861, CW,
4:444. [Mrs.
Lincoln visits camp of Rhode Island Regiment in afternoon.
N.Y. Times, 11 July 1861.
Statement of John Alexander, (see July 6, 1861) indicates probability of review
at White House on this date. DNA—RG 217, General
Accounting Office, 142-505.] |